U.S. comes up big on this measuring stick

Spain, expected to provide toughest test, takes beating

U.s. 119, Spain 82

BEIJING — Here in the land of lip-synching Opening Ceremony singers and computer-generated fireworks added to telecasts that claim to be live but are showing events that ended 12 hours ago, you can't be sure of anything.

Except that Team USA will win. Big.

If defending world champion Spain was supposed to pose a serious challenge to Mike Krzyzewski's merry band of would-be Olympic redeemers, Pau Gasol and his teammates never got the memo. In this case, even two Gasols -- Pau and his younger, bulkier brother, Marc -- were decidedly not enough.

Not when the Americans were shooting 58 percent from the field, making 12 of 25 three-point attempts and sprinting away to 32 fast-break points -- Spain had none -- in a 119-82 rout that improved their record to 4-0 in preliminary-round play.

"We were expecting the worst," Kobe Bryant said. "We were expecting them to come out and hit everything, being able to execute their strategies and keep us off balance, so we wanted to take it to them and be physical with them."

That included bumping bodies more than once with Pau Gasol, his Lakers teammate.

Bryant allowed that it was "a little weird because we were playing for high stakes going against each other. It was a little different than playing in practice."

"I was disappointed, not surprised, that we didn't do a better job than we did tonight," said Gasol, who acknowledged it was "a little strange, but at the same time fun" to take on Bryant.

Bryant said he and his teammates had been looking forward to this game because "absolutely it was something for us personally to say, 'Where do we measure up with the champion?' This was a big game for us."

So, how did he think they measured up after they dissected Spain's defense, scored 26 points off turnovers and piled up 60 points in the paint to 40 for Spain?

"Pretty damn well," Bryant said with a satisfied smile.

The U.S. has surpassed 100 points twice and has won its four games by an average of 28 points.

"I like our defense, forcing the number of turnovers that we did," Krzyzewski said, singling out Chris Bosh for his team-leading seven rebounds and take-charge attitude.

Asked if the team had been trying to make a statement or prove that it is taking everything seriously -- unlike its desultory performance in Athens four years ago -- assistant coach Mike D'Antoni nodded.

"I think we've been trying to prove that from the first day of practice two months ago," he said.